Bookalicious

Review: Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Dana Hathaway doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, Dana decides she’s had it with being her mother’s keeper, so she packs her bags and heads to stay with her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn’t just an ordinary teenage girl—she’s a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.

Soon, she finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone’s trying to kill her, and everyone wants something from her, even her newfound friends and family. Suddenly, life with her alcoholic mom doesn’t sound half bad, and Dana would do anything to escape Avalon and get back home. Too bad both her friends and her enemies alike are determined not to let her go . .

Doesn’t that synopsis sound magical, dark and immensely interesting? Don’t buy into it. Glimmerglass by Jenna Black is a void of wasted potential. There are many reasons I truly disliked this book, it’s not often anymore that I cull something that isn’t perfect for me. This year we have seen a rise of five star reviews on my site.

Dana is bitter and nasty at age sixteen. Her Mom is an alcoholic of the worst kind. The kind who show up at your school drunk and try to network, but Dana is a bit more than bitter. The Mom-hate is a theme through-out the book and it keeps this ever negative vibe that wears you out while reading. I don’t know how many times Dana mentions she paid the bills, balanced the check book and so on and so forth.

I so loved that the fae were out and about in this book. Humans knew about them and could go to Avalon on vacation. Avalon had broken with the realm of Faerie and you even had to do immigration to get in. There was so much potential here I could feel it in my bones but in the end it was poorly executed. I wanted more dark less snark, more fun less negativity from my main character. The side characters were so one dimensional that I could predict their reactions to the tiniest thing.

If you liked Wings give Glimmerglass a go, that in itself is a statement.

FTC Disclosure: I borrowed this book from Debbie’s World of Books and I found two dollars in it WIN! Okay I’ll probably give it back to Deb…